


Drunk Girl

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Drinking, Friendship, Gen, Loss, Morning After, Songfic, Support, Zero smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 09:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14446173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: Fingering the slip of paper, she wondered what sort of man he was, bringing her home drunk and not trying anything inappropriate.





	1. Spring 1992- 21y

**Author's Note:**

> Songfic based on the son Drunk Girl by Chris Janson.
> 
> If you haven't heard it, here are the words to the chorus-
> 
> "Take a drunk girl home  
> Let her sleep all alone  
> Leave her keys on the counter, your number by the phone  
> Pick up her life she threw on the floor  
> Leave the hall lights on walk out and lock the door  
> That's how she knows the difference between a boy and man  
> Take a drunk girl home"

=Spring 1992- 21y

He’d gotten in purely on how official he looked, he knew that. What he didn’t know was why she was there in the first place.

Aaron Hotchner pushed his way through the surging bodies until he found her, pressed between two men, her eyes more closed that open. “Emily.”

He couldn’t tell if she recognized him or not, either way, he’d gotten her attention. She grabbed his tie and pulled him close, turning her back on the men who’d been enjoying feeling her up. The pair started to object, clearly, they had intentions, but a silent glare from Aaron had them backing up, arms raised.

“Dance with me.” She spoke into his ear, doing her best to touch him anywhere she thought it would turn him on, too drunk to notice she was failing.

Aaron had a job here tonight, though strictly speaking this wasn’t on any FBI assignment form he’d ever read. Gripping her wrists, he held them to her sides. “Stop. Not here, not like this.”

The smile on her face turned feral, she seemed to understand what he was hinting at. “You planning to take me home?”

“Yes.” He’d gotten word through one of his contacts that the daughter of the ambassador he was working for had been spotted out at a club, which club it was had taken a lot longer to work out. It seemed his contacts were happy to sit idle and watch the show and less than inclined to see Agent Hotchner take her away. As he tried to lead her out, Emily draped herself over him, her hands vanishing suggestively under his suit jacket, fingers teasing behind his belt. There were catcalls from drunk boys thinking Aaron was getting lucky tonight, he just ducked his head and rolled his eyes.

In the car, Aaron found himself playing a thirty-minute game of keep away as Emily’s focus was now entirely on trying to get into his pants. “Emily, not now.” He brushed her hands aside again.

“But why wait till we get home?” She whined.

“I promise it’ll be worth it.” He guided her hands back to her lap again. “Just sit back and relax.” It worked, because by the time he pulled into a guest spot at her complex, Emily was completely passed out. Frowning, he found her keys and lifted her out of the car, careful not to hurt her as he carried her in.

Aaron found her bedroom, settling her on the bed and removing anything he could see that would be uncomfortable to sleep in; shoes, jewelry, hair clips. Pulling up the blanket, he tucked her in and made sure her alarm was off, she was going to have a rough morning as it was, no need to make it worse.

As he made his way back through the house, he wondered what had made Emily go out tonight. She didn’t have a reputation as a party girl, great grades at schools and determined to succeed. In the kitchen, he found a pad of paper and jotted down his name and number, letting her know to call him and he’d drive her to pick up her car. The last thing he did before he left was turn on the hall light in case she got up in the night, locked the front door behind himself, and pulled it closed. She was home, safe and sound, he could rest easy.

==

Emily stumbled out of bed, wondering what bad decision she’d made the night before. A glance at the calendar on the desk reminded her why she’d gone out to the club the night before, but the pounding brought on by dehydration in her skull let her know why it wasn’t something she did very often. In fact, Emily never went out drinking and dancing with strange men. “Shit.” It was all coming back to her now, the men she was dancing with the night before. There had been two of them, both close enough she could have had their wallets if she’d been so inclined.

She made her way through her place, she was still dressed, so it was unlikely she’d slept with either of the guys, not once she was at home anyway. The light on in the hall surprised her, as drunk as she’d been, she wouldn’t have bothered with a light. In fact, she couldn’t remember coming home at all, just…being led to a car by a man. As Emily found a glass of water, fragments of leaving the bar and getting back into said car came back, she’d pawed on the man in a way that now made her blush. Turning around, she spotted the phone number by her keys.

Fingering the slip of paper, she wondered what sort of man he was, bringing her home drunk and not trying anything inappropriate.

She found she was nervous to call him.


	2. Spring 2006-35y

= Spring 2006- 35y

==

He’d thought about the girl from the bar from time to time, on those late nights when he found himself with a moment to be adrift. Aaron had known her name because of his position, but he’d never actually talked to her in that context. The morning after he’d driven her home, she’d left him a message thanking him for the lift, he’d missed her call because he’d been with Haley and somehow, they never made that connection again, eventually real life made them both move on.

Aaron hadn’t realized how long it’d been since he’d thought of the mysterious Emily Prentiss until she was standing in his office looking as vibrant as ever. He had taken her in and remembered the girl from a decade and a half before.

She’d been on the team for a number of months when an away case fell on the anniversary of the night he’d taken her home. In the days prior, Hotch noticed how she seemed edgy, distracted, like something other than work was on her mind. Considerate of whatever it was, he assigned her to tasks that allowed for a little mind wandering, or as much as their line of work permitted. When the date arrived and they were only just wrapping up the job, Aaron sensed that whatever had been building was reaching its critical point and he sent everyone back to the hotel, listening as Prentiss excused herself from going out with the others for dinner. So, when the invitation finally was extended to himself, Hotch did the same. He was concerned.

In his hotel room, Hotch shed all the obvious trappings of his job, his tie landed over the back of a chair, his side arm into the safe. Debating as he puttered about checking his emails again, and then his voicemail, he finally gave up the pretense and made his way back to the first floor of the hotel and into the bar.

It took several hours, peeking into several more bars, and profiling one of his own agents before he found her in a funky sort of bar that looked not nearly as upscale as one would expect a person as sophisticated as Emily to patron, but wasn’t that the point, but it wasn’t an all-out club either. Stepping inside, he let his eyes adjust before spotting her at the bar, leaned over on one elbow, a drink in her hand. He wasn’t willing to approach her just yet, she’d been moody and snappish the whole day and he didn’t want to upset her so Aaron found a booth across the room and just watched.

The more she drank, the more it seemed men started to be drawn to her. The red of her lips vibrant in the lights from the bar as she smiled at them in a way Hotch knew wasn’t meant to be sweet. Whatever was happening that he couldn’t hear, it was a game to her. However far gone she was, she was enjoying brushing the men off, enjoying the attention. He figured the flow of free drinks didn’t hurt either.

But then, as evening ended and night settled in, he sensed the change in her. Her smile fell, her elbow slipped, her drink sloshed. It was then that Hotch stood, dropped cash beside his own unfinished drink and approached her.

“Emily.” He spoke gently, close to her ear so she would hear him over the music.

“Mm?” She turned, blinking up at him.

“I think it’s time to go.” He hooked a hand under her arm, helping her to her feet. She stumbled, crashing into him and mumbling an apology. “It’s okay. I’ll get you back safe.” ‘Safe’ was a solid eight blocks mostly uphill and he inwardly cursed her stiletto heels and slip of a dress that both made it necessary to hold her closely to keep her upright and made it entirely awkward and uncomfortable for him at the same time.

Emily, for what it was worth, did her best to make the trip under her own power but in the end, she clung to her guide, one arm wrapped around his waist beneath his jacket, fist gripping his shirt while the other held the sleeve of his jacket. “I’m sorry.” She mumbled again when the hotel was in sight.

“It’s okay, Emily.”

“Today is a bad day. I hate today.”

“Shh, you don’t have to.”

“You’d hate me if you knew what I’d done.”

“Emily.” He tried to stop her.

“I hate me. How could you not hate me? I’m a sucky person.”

He didn’t ask about whatever it was that was eating her this bad, he wouldn’t do that while she was drunk, it wouldn’t be fair. Instead he carefully guided her up to her room and made sure she was on a bed before helping her out of her shoes and letting himself out. On his way out the door, he jotted a note that take off wasn’t going to be till eleven, he’d call and bump it back so she had time.

==

Emily groaned against the sunlight streaming through the window, swearing she was never drinking like that again. Stumbling out of bed, she headed straight for the shower to try and sober up and get ready to leave.

Hours later on the jet, Emily had sequestered herself in the large chair in the back facing away from everyone else. It was a chair that most of the team headed for when they wanted time to think and be left alone, but it was also a chair that almost always meant that eventually someone was going to come and sit across from you to talk or to listen or sometimes to simply share the silence and let you know you weren’t alone.

It didn’t take long for her to get that company as Hotch carefully, silently, sank into the leather chair opposite her. He never said a word, never pulled out the files he always carried with him, nothing, just sat with his hands in his lap, watching out the window at the clouds.

“I’m sorry.” Emily finally started, unsure why she was apologizing, maybe for the mood she’d been in, maybe for the silence now.

He seemed to feel how unsure she was with herself as his head tilted, studying her without a word. His face was relaxed, open. Emily could read him about as well as anyone else on the team except maybe Dave, she was pretty sure the older man could read more that just their leader’s micro expressions, but his mind as well.

“Last night… And thank you. For helping me get back… Again.”

The nod was almost imperceptible, the silence gentle instead of pressing. It told her that an explanation wasn’t necessary.

“It’s always a bad day for me.”

“Since?”

She chewed her lip at the question. If she refused to offer more, he’d let it go without a further thought, but she’d been the one to start it. “Since I was sixteen.” She saw something that looked suspiciously like recognition flash in his eyes and broke eye contact with him. Reid was always the one known for making grand connections in fractions of seconds but Hotch wasn’t the team lead for nothing. Emily knew the man across from her made similar leaps almost as fast, he just did it with less sugar-fueled exuberance. When her eyes finally found his again, the barely-a-twitch nod was there again before he turned, gaze studying the clouds outside like they were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

Whatever he thought she wanted to say, she knew he was ending the conversation before she forced herself to talk. Any man she’d known before him would have pressed, hell, most of the other men on the team would have pressed until they’d pestered her into blowing up at them and storming off embarrassed. Biting the inside of her cheek, Emily willed the tears forming in the corners of her eyes away. Where had been the men like him when she was a kid? There had been only boys, less chivalrous boys who frankly wouldn’t have simply helped her into bed and then left. If they had, then yesterday wouldn’t be permanently stained with a black mark.

They stayed seated across from one another, not working and not talking until the jet had landed and the others had left them alone. Emily sensed she shouldn’t stand and leave just yet, so she stayed, doing her best to not watch him staring at the tarmac now.

“You’re stronger than you know, Emily.”

When he spoke, it was soft and for a moment she wondered if she’d imagined it.

“I know memories have their own power…” She realized the one who generally talked the least was going to do all the talking now. “But don’t let them own you.”

“I…” She wasn’t sure now if she needed to say anything at all. “Thank you.” The nod was there again, and the moment seemed to be over, so she rose, brush her slacks smooth as she turned to leave him. At the doorway, Emily hesitated, looking back, expecting to see him watching her.


	3. Spring 2007-36y

=Spring 2007- 36y

==

 If anyone understood the urge to drink away reality for a while, it was Hotch. Haley was gone and with her, Jack. He had no network of family to call on when the walls were pressing in, and maybe she’d been banking on that a bit. His father was hopefully, deservedly, somewhere in the bowels of hell, his mother unwilling to see him as anything but the screw up his father had declared him to be. Haley had her sister, her parents, and assorted cousins and aunts and uncles. The sheer size of the Brooks clan had always made him a little uncomfortable.

But at least Jack had them to turn to while he parents were screwing everything up.

Aaron stepped in the bar. He’d very innocently asked Garcia if she knew what Prentiss’ plans were for the night and, sensing no deceit, she’d answered honestly. It felt dirty to abuse the analyst’s innocent and trusting nature, but he shoved it aside to irritate his ulcer another day. Looking around, he found Prentiss already well into her drinking if the leaning and collection of glasses were any indication. This year he didn’t wait in the shadows for her, instead he took the stool directly beside her, ordering a drink with the instruction to keep them flowing when the bartender stopped. For an hour they drank side by side wordlessly until Emily blinked his way.

“The great and powerful Hotch getting totally off his ass drunk?” She giggled, he cheeks pink.

He knew the reputation he had, most of the time he didn’t do much to dissuade it. “Yes.” He tossed back another drink, savoring the burn. A hand around his tie startled him. “Emily.”

“Dance with me.”

“No. I don’t dance.” Another glass was before him, another glassful went down. Her hand was still on his tie, still pressed, warm, against his sternum. “Emily.” He started again, unsure why. The hand shifted along the silk of his tie as she stood, fingertips catching the small end of his tie, slowly tightening the noose around his neck. He had to snatch her wrist to keep her from strangling him. “Let’s dance.”

==

Emily stood in the entry between her hallway and her living room staring at the passed-out form of her boss sprawled on her couch in the early morning light. She didn’t remember getting home. Again.

That was starting to become a habit.

He’d never stayed before but then again, he’d never drank with her before. But even with the surprise of finding he’d stayed, he’d still been a gentleman and had tucked her in before sleeping on the couch. Crossing quietly to the kitchen, she found the note. Apparently, he had intended to leave. Emily chewed her lip, Hotch had taken her home three times now, surely he’d ask what it was about this date that drove her to drink.

But when he finally came around an hour later, it was with nothing but apologies for having stayed on his lips as he quietly slipped out her door. There hadn’t even been a question in his eyes.

Emily wondered what kind of man never stayed and never asked.


	4. Spring 2011-40y

=Spring 2011, 40y

==

It had become their annual tradition though Hotch only drank once more with her and she can’t blame him, he had only buried the love of his life less than six months before and that one time his grief weighed heavier between them than her own.

The other years, Emily started simply dropping a note on his desk with the name of a bar to save him searching all the greater DC area for her or, perhaps the scarier option, making him ask Garcia to track her. This year was different though. This year she knew the devil was on her doorstep and the only way to stop him just might involve her dead body.

And she would do anything to stop him and protect her family.

Her life was full of too many secrets so when that familiar suit and cologne approached her in the dim of the bar, she decided it was time to let some go.

Aaron was startled when her arms wrapped around his neck the moment he stepped up to her, normally the touching was saved for when he was walking her out.

“I have a secret, Hotch.”

“Emily.” He breathed, certain she was too drunk to be allowed to continue.

“Every year for the past twenty I’ve come and gotten plastered off my ass. Some years guys have tried to take me back to their place and that scared me but with you… You’re a good guy, Hotch.”

He swallowed, his throat dry, but stayed silent.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why?”

He tipped his head forward to look at her at that. “It wasn’t my place to wonder.”

“I know how you feel about kids.” Her forehead tucked against his neck now so she wouldn’t have to face him. “People might think Rossi would hold tighter to the sanctity of life, but… He sees things differently. I told him a couple years ago and…” She trailed off and Aaron figured she wasn’t going to finish. “When I was sixteen I got pregnant and every day, on this day, I go out and drink myself stupid because it’s the day I went and…” Her voice cracked. “I was so stupid.” She whispered after a minute.

“You were sixteen.” Hotch gave in to the urge to pull her close, allowing them to sway to the music while being mindful of where his hands landed. “How I feel isn’t important.”

Emily pulled back at his words, searching his eyes. “It is to me.” Try as she might, she couldn’t find condemnation or disgust in the depths of his brown eyes.

“You were a child in a foreign country, you were trying to grow up with little guidance from any adults as they were all too busy. You assessed your situation and made the best decision you could with the information you had.”

“Is that good enough though?”

“It’s all anyone can ever do.”

She stopped their swaying and pulled away from him. “In any situation?”

Aaron felt like there was something in the way she asked that said she wasn’t talking about the same event anymore. “I would never be upset at anyone who was doing the best they could with what they had.”

A month later he would kick himself for not pressing her harder as he carried her coffin to its final resting place.


	5. Spring 2012-41y

=Spring 2012, 41y

==

Bad days were to be expected, their job fell into the mostly-sucks category. But fate or luck or something else had landed them together as a team and from that they’d built a family. As a family, it meant you were never alone if you didn’t want to be and, occasionally, it meant you didn’t get much privacy when you really wanted it.

But Emily figured that was the price she paid for going rogue and dying for half a year. One’s family tends to not let you out of their sight after that.

Since her talk with Hotch, it had felt like the bad days had settled down though. He’d stayed up with her all night after that case, worry etched in his face but he never tried to tell her she was wrong for feeling how she did. When is became obvious the after-effects weren’t going to be quickly dealt with, he’d encouraged her to pack a bag, and Sergio, and come stay with he and Jack. And who could feel alone with a six-year-old boy wanting to share everything with you?

But it was an anniversary tonight, more than one really, and she was sitting at the bar of a hole-in-the-wall place, waiting. When Hotch arrived thirty minutes later, she tugged out the stool beside hers and offered him her glass, smirking at the surprise on his face when he took a swallow and discovered it was only water.

“No drinking tonight?”

Emily sighed. “I don’t think so. Maybe it’s time to let this day be just a day.”

“Only you can decide that.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I know. You know, it’s been twenty years.”

His brows knit together. “For what?”

“Since the night a man is an expensive suit pulled me out from between two guys and took me home, tucked me in, and showed me that not all guys are pigs.” She watched him duck his head and blush. “I’ve never told you this, but after that you sort of became the standard I measured other guys to.”

Hotch barked out a small laugh. “Come on.”

“No, I’m serious!” She grinned, shaking her hair out of her eyes. “I still went for the creeps, but I realized a lot sooner that they were creeps.”

He was shaking his head now. “You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not!” She insisted, giggling. “Talk to JJ sometime, and Pen, with guys like the lot of you around, it has left us with some serious standards.”

“I’m not asking them. And anyway, JJ has Will, he’s a great guy.”

“He is. He’s hardworking, dedicated to both his job and his family, and he puts JJ first. Every time. She is his world.” Even in the bar lighting she could see the blush return. “And Pen with Kevin as well, though to a lesser degree.”

“Well, you missed one thing, I didn’t put Haley first, that’s why we divorced.”

Emily rolled her eyes at that. “You did put her ahead of yourself, and that’s what I meant.”

He thought on that a moment but then let it go. “Are we drinking tonight or not?”

“I say not. Twenty-five years is long enough to hurt. This past year I’ve realized just how different things would have been if I’d’ve had a kid. No Interpol or Doyle.”

“That maybe wouldn’t have been a bad thing.”

“Yeah, some of it. No BAU. None of this, you and me.”

“Friendship?”

“Is that what this is? I didn’t think men and women could just be friends.”

“They can.” He waved down the bartender and ordered a drink.

“Wow, you’re drinking tonight when I’m not?”

Aaron didn’t answer until the drink arrived and he took two swigs. “You only told me last year, but I knew before that.”

“Rossi?”

“No.” He shook his head, staring straight ahead. “But I did know you came clean to him about something, I assumed what it was, but he’ll take that conversation to the grave.”

“I thought so.”

“No…When you joined the team, that first year. On the jet home, you started to tell me then but stopped yourself, but I saw it in your eyes. I knew that look and it told me so much.”

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say so she stayed quiet, just watching the side of his face.

“Haley wasn’t my first.” He ducked his head at the admittance. “I was almost eighteen when she and I met.” He drew in a breath. “Before her…her name was Nicole Thatcher and I thought I loved her.”

“Hotch, you don’t…” She tried.

“Honestly, I don’t know for sure… I know we would sneak out and fool around and then she started avoiding me and then her parents sent her away for a month or so and when she came back… She told me everything was fine, we just couldn’t see each other anymore, but she had that look in her eyes.” He chewed his lip. “There were other things as well but…”

Emily wasn’t sure how to respond, what to say, but her heart was breaking for him. “Did you ever tell Haley?”

He shook his head. “I never told anyone. Not a soul.” He huffed wryly. “Not even Dave.”

“Then why me?”

His eyes met hers for a split second before he finished his drink. “Last year you told me, you said how I felt mattered to you. I guess I wanted you to know I really did understand. If Nicole was really pregnant like I’d suspected, and she’d brought that baby home?”

He didn’t finish, but Emily understood. The same things had gone through his mind as well- no college, no FBI. Maybe even no Haley and by extension, no Jack. “I’m sorry.” She finally offered.

Aaron nodded. “Maybe it’s time I put the past behind me as well.”


	6. Spring 2014-43y

=Spring 2014, 43y

==

Emily had gotten the call from Penelope to tell her that Hotch had been rushed to the hospital, leave it to her best friend to remember to keep her updated in real time when tragedy struck their family. But she wasn’t able to make it state-side for another six months.

Those months had been filled with constant updates from both Pen and JJ about not only her replacement on the team, whom Reid ‘got along smashingly’ with, according to Garcia, but also the status of Hotch who apparently wasn’t bouncing back as easily from his surgery as the doctors had expected. So, now, she was standing outside his front door waiting for it to be opened.

Emily hadn’t expected that the door would be opened by a brunette woman. “Oh! I- Beth, right?”

The woman grinned. “Yeah.”

“I’m- I’m sorry. I’m Emily, Prentiss. I used to work with Aaron?”

“Oh!” It was Beth’s turn to exclaim with a widening grin. “Come in. He’s talked about you. He just ran to drop Jack off at a friend’s house for a sleepover.” She led Emily to the kitchen. “He’ll be back in thirty minutes or so.”

“Thanks. I hadn’t heard- are you tow living together now?”

“Oh, no. I actually live in New York now, but when I come into town to visit, I stay with them.”

“That’s nice.” Emily smiled.

“Would you like a drink?” Beth held up a bottle of red.

“Sure.” She waited and accepted the glass. “I had to come back to the states to see my mother.”

“He’d mentioned you were working in England now. How is it?”

“It’s good.”

“I’ve been considering some overseas museum positions. I just can’t decide…” Her voice softened. “I worry about him.” She saw Emily tip her head in question. “I never really asked about his scars. I mean, I knew, but I didn’t press, but… I think what happened last year scared him. He doesn’t talk to me or Jessica.” She glanced at the front door. “I even called Dave and I guess he hasn’t talked to any of the team either.”

“I was already booked to come, but JJ and Pen asked me to come see him while I was here. They’ve been worried too.”

“They all must know.”

“Know what?”

“He’s had horrible nightmares since surgery. And the pain…” Beth shook her head but didn’t continue. “If you think you can help, I’ll get out of your way.” She stood and turned.

“Wait, Beth. Look, I didn’t realize you would be here, I’m sorry. I’m sure your time with him is limited. I can talk to him another time.”

“No. You…” She seemed to consider a moment. “He’ll be back any minute, but there’s something I think you should see.”

==

“Beth, I’m back.” He called out as he locked the door behind himself. “I don’t have to pick Jack up till noon tomorrow.” He looked up as Beth and someone else entered the living room. “Emily! What a surprise!” He moved to hug her. “I didn’t know you would be in town!”

“I wanted to surprise you. I have obligations with Mother for a few days.”

“Enjoy catching up, Aaron, I’ll be back in a bit.” Beth had her purse in her hand.

“Beth, no, you don’t have to go.” He insisted.

“It’s okay, Hon. Emily and I have been catching up ourselves, I’ll be back in a bit.” She turned to Emily. “If you don’t have to run off, you’re welcome to dinner.”

“I’d love to, just so long as it isn’t pork.”

Beth glanced at Aaron. “I can’t get him to eat it either.” She saw them exchange a look. “I was thinking baked chicken anyway.”

“That sounds good.” They watched her leave before Aaron turned to his friend.

“So…”

“JJ and Penny were worried. About you. And Beth shared some things.”

He considered his options before drawing a breath. “I mourned what Jack went through and… And I mourned Haley… What happened to me made me realize- I never dealt with what had happened to me.”

“And now?”

“And now I could really use a drink.”

Emily thought it looked as if he sagged into himself as he spoke. “I’m not going anywhere.” She swallowed hard. “And Aaron?”

“Hmm?”

“After you’re done dealing?”

“Yeah?”

“You and I are going to talk about the pills Beth gave me.”

His breath caught for a moment, but then he remembered, this was Emily. He’d never judged her, and she would never judge him. He nodded, it was for the best that Beth had spoken up, he knew it was becoming a problem. “Okay.” Her started to turn away. “You pour the drinks and I’ll bring you the other bottles as well.”

Watching him leave, Emily resolved to be there for her friend for as long as he needed. Even if that was another twenty-five years.


End file.
